Leaderboard

TRANSACTIONS Recently signed non-drafted free agent LHP Michael Boyle was assigned to Ft. Myers. So was MLB veteran RHP Brock Stewart who has worked his way back to affiliated ball after recovering from injuries the past few seasons? SAINTS SENTINEL Iowa 6, St. Paul 5 Box score Ronny Henriquez has been coming out of the bullpen for the Saints the past couple of months, generally still working multiple innings situations. He returned to the starting rotation this week and put together arguably his best start of the season. The right-hander gave up one run on three hits over five innings. He struck out six batters, and maybe most important for his development, he walked none. The bullpen came on and had some moments. Juan Minaya recorded the first two outs in the sixth inning. But, he gave up one run on two walks. Austin Schulfer came on and got the final out of that inning. Jharel Cotton gave up a run on one hit and one walk in the seventh inning. Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Saints held a 5-3 lead. Jovani Moran came on and struck out two in the eighth inning. Unfortunately, he gave up three runs on two hits and two walks, and a hit batter to blow the save and take the loss. The outing bumps his Saints season ERA up to 6.00. Just 15 of his 31 pitches were strikes. There are openings in the Twins bullpen, and he certainly isn’t putting up the Triple-A numbers to force the Twins’ hand. Matt Wallner went 2-for-4 with a walk and his sixth double since joining the Saints. Jermaine Palacios went 2-for-5. Nash Knight went 2-for-4. WIND SURGE WISDOM Frisco 2, Wichita 1 Box Score Lefty Kody Funderburk gave up two runs in the third inning, and that was it for the Frisco run-scoring on this night. Unfortunately, it was one run more than the Wind Surge were able to muster. Funderburk gave up those two runs on two hits and two walks. He struck out four. The bullpen followed with four scoreless, hitless innings. Denny Bentley walked one and struck one out over two innings. Alex Phillips and Steven Cruz each worked one inning. Cruz struck out two batters. The Wind Surge batters had twice as many hits as Frisco, but just half as many runs. Wichita had four hits, but the lone run came in the top of the seventh inning in the form of Jair Camargo’s eighth Double-A home run. Austin Martin found three different ways to get on base. He was hit by a pitch, walked, and had a single. He also stole his 31st bag. KERNELS NUGGETS Lake County 1, Cedar Rapids 5 Box Score Cedar Rapids got some great pitching and kept the offense rolling, scoring their five runs in four different innings. Let’s start on the mound where David Festa improved to 7-2 with a 2.25 ERA with 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, no walks, and he struck out six batters. Matt Mullenbach got four of the five batters he faced out. He did hit one batter. Bobby Milacki struck out four batters over the final two innings. The lone run allowed came on a ninth-inning home run. It’s been a tough season for outfielder Willie Joe Garry. He missed more than two months with injury, but since his return, the speedster has been playing very well. On this night, he went 3-for-4 with a single, double, and a home run. He drove in two of the Kernel runs and scored three runs. Jake Rucker went 2-for-3 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. If not the fewest in the league, the Minnesota Twins big-league club has very stolen bases. On Friday night, infielder Mikey Perez stole his 12th base since joining the Kernels. He had 32 stolen bases in Ft. Myers earlier in the season. Here are the organization’s Top 10 leaders in Stolen Bases in 2022: Mikey Perez - 44 DaShawn Keirsey, Jr. - 34 Austin Martin - 32 Michael Helman - 30 Yasser Mercedes - 30 Will Holland - 26 Daniel Ozoria - 20 Anthony Prato - 20 Luis Baez - 19 Noah Miller - 19 MUSSEL MATTERS Lakeland, Fort Myers (Game Suspended in the 3rd inning) Box Score The Mighty Mussels played two games on Thursday but only completed two innings on Friday night due to rain. We’ll have more on this game when it is completed (hopefully on Saturday), but we’ll show you a little of what happened. 30-year-old Brock Stewart started for the Mussels and went the first two innings. He gave up two runs on just one hit. Immediately following a hit batter in the second innings, he gave up a home run to Mike Rothenberg. But all that is the background to a potentially great story. Stewart was drafted by the Dodgers in the 6th round in 2014 out of Illinois State. Just two years after signing, he made his big-league debut. Between 2016 and 2019, he pitched in 36 games for the Dodgers, including 11 starts. He went 6-3 with a 6.05 ERA over 105 2/3 innings. When the Dodgers let him go, the Blue Jays claimed him and he went 4-0 over 10 late-season appearances. After that season, he was selected by the Cubs in the Rule 5 draft, but they let him go in late May of 2020 as the season was in doubt. He pitched in six games for the Chicago Deep Dish of the City of Champions Cup League. The Dodgers signed him before the 2021 season, but he had Tommy John surgery in May of 2021 and rehabbed the rest of the season. He hadn’t pitched at all this year either, but after a tryout, the Twins signed him in mid-July to a minor league deal. Maybe it’s a long shot, but maybe he works his way back and gets to the big leagues in a bullpen role. Those are the kind of stories that are fun to tell when a game is suspended in the bottom of the third. Michael Boyle pitched a scoreless top of the third. He is 28 years old and hasn’t pitched since 2019 with the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate in Tulsa. He’s healthy and attempting to come back. Hopefully we’ll continue to write about him the next year or so and get to know more about his story too. Noah Cardenas hit a solo home run in the second inning, his ninth of the year. In the bottom of the third inning, Misael Urbina led off with a double. Ben Ross drove him in with a double. One batter later, Ross stole third base and then scored on a Cardenas single. Kala’i Rosario followed with an RBI double, his 20th two-bagger of the season. And that’s when the game was delayed by rain. The teams will attempt to finish this game as part of a modified doubleheader on Saturday late afternoon. That will be a nine-inning game. The regularly-scheduled game will then be a seven-inning game. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – David Festa (Cedar Rapids) - 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, (73 pitches, 47 strikes) Hitter of the Day – Willie Joe Garry, Jr. (Cedar Rapids) - 3-4, 2B (9), HR (2), 3 R, 2 RBI, K PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed: #2 - Brooks Lee (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, BB, RBI #4 - Austin Martin (Wichita) - 1-2, BB, HBP, SB (31) #9 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 2-4, BB, R, RBI, 2 K #13 - David Festa (Cedar Rapids) - 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, (73 pitches, 47 strikes) #14 - Edouard Julien (Wichita) - 0-4, 2 K #16 - Ronny Henriquez (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K (67 pitches, 45 strikes) #18 - Tanner Schobel (Fort Myers) - 0-2, 2 K #20 - Kala'i Rosario (Fort Myers) - 1-2, 2B(20), RBI K SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Here are the start times and probables for their games. St. Paul @ Iowa (6:08 PM CST) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson Wichita @ Frisco (7:05 PM CST) - LHP Aaron Rozek Cedar Rapids @ Lake County (5:35 PM CST) - LHP Jaylen Nowlin Lakeland @ Fort Myers (DH starting at 3:30 PM CST) - TBD, RHP Tomas Cleto Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Friday's games

Nearing the end of his seventh big-league season, Gio Urshela’s offensive profile has been interesting to follow throughout his career. It took until his age-27 season for a team to give him a chance to play over 100 games, and he made the most of the opportunity. In 175 games between 2019-20, he hit .310/.359/.523 (.881) with a 134 OPS+ and 72 extra-base hits. He was a well above-average hitter that offered some defensive flexibility. It looked like the Yankees had found another strong player off the scrap heap. During the 2021 season, his offensive numbers struggled as he posted a 97 OPS+ while striking out 109 times in 116 games. He ended the season with a .720 OPS and questions about his long-term role with the Yankees. His defense at third base also struggled as he posted a -1.2 SDI, which is one of the metrics used to award Gold Gloves. Only four American League third basemen had a lower total during the 2021 season. Coming off his down season, Minnesota acquired Urshela along with Gary Sanchez as part of the Josh Donaldson trade. Urshela seemed like he had the potential to be a bounce-back candidate, and the Twins acquired him with multiple years of team control. For the 2022 season, Urshela made $6.55 million through the arbitration process, and he will be scheduled to make more in 2023. So, should the Twins offer him arbitration or let him test the free agent waters? Entering play this weekend, Urshela has very similar offensive numbers to 2021. His .741 OPS is just over 20 points higher than last season, and he has almost an identical amount of extra-base hits. However, giving context to those numbers is crucial because offense is down across baseball this season. His 114 OPS+ ranks above league average and in the 67th percentile or higher in Max Exit Velocity, xSLG, and K%. Not everything has been perfect for Urshela this season. Among Twins hitters, he has the seventh highest Win Probability Added, which places him between Kyle Garlick and Royce Lewis. His defense has also been below replacement level, as only one AL third baseman has a lower SDI ranking. There have been good and bad moments for him throughout the season, but the team will have to consider what value he can provide the team for 2023. FanGraphs pegs Urshela as providing the Twins with $8.4 million worth of value so far in 2022. That is significantly more than the $6.55 million Minnesota is paying him this season, but it might be similar to where his arbitration figure ends up for 2023. Entering the 2021 season, the Twins had to decide whether or not to offer arbitration to Eddie Rosario. He was scheduled to make around $12 million in arbitration, and the front office decided to go in a different direction. It was the right decision, even if he had some big playoff moments for the Braves. The Rosario decision was likely more straightforward than what the team will do with Urshela. Looking ahead to next season, the Twins will have multiple options to play third base. Luis Arraez, Jose Miranda, and Royce Lewis are all options to fill the role at the hot corner. All three players are part of the team’s long-term plan, and Urshela’s arbitration money might be more wisely spent on other roster pieces. Do you think the Twins will offer Urshela arbitration? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.